Independence Day
Celebrations

Boise and Idaho Falls, Idaho
July 4, 2007

I love Independence Day. I often spend the holiday traveling across Idaho to participate in parades and festivities, meeting and talking with people, and taking a moment to remember the patriots—past and present—who make this day worth celebrating. From Bull Run to Guadalcanal, from Normandy to Kandahar, American soldiers have been sacrificing to bring the freedoms we celebrate on this special day to millions of people who have known nothing but oppression and fear.

This year I was able to attend festivies in both Idaho Falls and Boise, and once again came away feeling indebted to those patriots who gave all to secure, as the preamble to the Constitution says, "the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

You can read the Constitution at the National Archives online.